Sanborn's

“I don’t know what it was, we just had this, this amazing...energy...at the Seattle show” a big man with wild salt and pepper-colored curls exploding in every direction from his had.
“See, I'm just not on the same page here” a woman with short hair and a floral jacket objects. “During the Seattle set, I was feelin' this magical energy way up here,” she motions with her hands, setting a bar above her head, “but then all the sudden, you started making a speech, and we just...lost it,” dropping her hand dramatically to the table, rattling silverware and cups.
A band with five animated, 30-something year-olds joins us early-on in our meal at Sanborn’s. In the quiet, mostly empty space, their passionate conversation carries throughout the restaurant, making it hard not to listen in on. I imagine they play poppy, punk-type music. I try to match each of them up with an instrument. I pin the tan guy in a fedora as the bassist, but can’t quite nail down the rest.
In its eighth year of business, Sanborn’s is perched understatedly on the corner of Milwaukee and Kelly Street, just down the block from the historical Aladdin Theater. The dark purple tavern-y exterior is misleading—insight is bright and quaint. The interior features a white tiled floor and white table clothes. It felt a bit too sterile for me. Music seems prominent throughout the space—from the “seat yourself” sign scrawled over music scores, to the piano featuring a few albums set out on top of it. Ironically, besides soft chattering at tables, the place is nearly silent. The kitchen is out of sight, each time our waitress reports to the kitchen she disappears behind a corner. This was the first place I’d visited where the kitchen was nowhere to be found.
But while the atmosphere isn’t remarkable, the food certainly is. I order the blueberry waffle (made with Oregon blueberries), which came cooked perfectly, dusted with powdered sugar, and with warm blueberry compote for syrup. Keenan orders Bee’s special, a basic egg-bacon-pancake set-up, while Colin orders the apple German pancake. The warm caramelized apples in the custard-y, cinnamon-y pancake is something special. If I were to return I would order the waffle or the pancake again.
Or maybe I’d muster the courage to order their infamous “Bam Cake”- an apple German pancake stuffed with bacon, served with maple syrup. German pancakes have gotta be their specialty, they sure make a damn good ones.